super cheap wedding

[lumpolead]

There might be millions of threads like this but i keep reading how you can get married without getting into debt

Well im extremely prepared to go back to basics yet the ceremony will still cost 500 quid at either local church or registrar :/ i dont have 500 quid to do that! We both just want to be married not bothered about the wedding to be fair

Am i reading this wrong or is it £500 near everyone else?

If my dp and I ever marry I'd like to go to the registry office in our everyday clothes and just do it. Then order a Chinese and have an early night

But it would be my second marriage and his first, his family would never forgive me.

It sounds like the marriage is more important to you than the wedding so you're already onto a good start :)

Should add that £500 seems a lot but I might be out of touch

That seems a lot. I was married in a registary office three guests and a meal after we didn't spend that for the whole thing outfits and all.

We got married at our local registrars and it cost £150
Booked the local pub £50
Dj £150
Friends made the buffet as a gift

Get a dress from eBay and suit in the sale

The only thing we didn't get cheap was rings

It isn't that much at the register office I don't think? Seems to vary slightly with the area, but most seem to offer a ceremony at a register office for £49, which may or may not include the certificate, then you have to pay for putting the notice of the marriage up, maybe £40 - not sure if you have to have a pre-ceremony meeting too, but that also costs.

I got married in registry office cost just under £200, got my dress brand new on eBay, bridesmaids dresses in primark, suits in asda & eBay, flowers on eBay! Then went to the pub after and everyone brought own drinks

At my civic centre: To give notice it's about £70. The ceremony is £120 to £350 depending on the day of the week.

Where I live it is £35 per person to give notice plus £49 for the wedding and certificate, so £119 altogether. If you want to get married in a room with more than just you and the witnesses it costs more.

Thanks everyone, i will definitely re-check. We checked the price when we were first engaged and it was a bit of a head fuck! We may have been reading the more elaborate ceremonies at the registry office i suppose.

Neither of us have been married before and i think our families would like to be present. However both our immediate families are large and far away! Hotel reception wouldnt be our cup of tea and well out of our price range! I had a great idea of booking some camping pods on a campsite for a weekend near a lovely small chapel by us. Child friendly, a proper laugh and more 'us' but dp didnt think his family would like it. Plus once meals and the rest were added on it was going to be quite expensive and would take us ages to save for (we have zilch for savings and theres never any pennies left at the end of each month either)

So i just wanna go back to basics again. Will ring on mon, hopefully theres a cheaper option and we can just invite our parents :)

Thank you.

The camping pods sound great. Which bits did your dh think his family wouldn't like? Could there be optional bits they can avoid doing?

For meals, what about a bring and share meal? I have been to a wedding like this, it was lovely, personal, the food was lush and there was tons of it, much better than any caterer.

What size are you, shall we find you a wedding outfit ?

I'm getting married next Friday, reg office £180, room hire- free, dj- £10 per hour....I've got lots of money saving opps, just ask

Our reg office is £119

A few of our friends separated out the wedding and the reception. This can save you loads.

So they had immediate family only at the actual wedding. Some also just went out for a meal after (everyone paid for themselves), and then simply hired a hall for the evening, and had a massive party, where they did invite everyone.

By only having the evening party, you can cut costs massively, because you can simply just do a buffet, and you can actually do the food yourself. So this would reduce costs literally to:

Registry office service
Dress
Hall hire
DJ
Food.

Our local hall is only £60 to hire for the night, so this can reduce costs massively.

I think the key to making it successful is not to try and run it like a traditional wedding. Those weddings where I have been to that have tried to do everything ( but on the cheap), haven't been great (and some have been awful), but by thinking outside of the box, you can have a great wedding. One of my favourites was a wedding where they literally turned up at the registry office, and then they went off to a local hotel restaurant for a meal after, and said whoever fancies joining us, do. It was so lovely, relaxed afternoon, it was great, but didn't come across as cheap iyswim!

Congratulations!

Start selling stuff on e-bay/car boots sales that you do not need anymore to generate cash for your reception.
for eg. I recently sold some gold bracelets that I inherited for 2k. If you set your mind to it it is amazing how much you can raise.

Open a high interest, fixed term notice account where you can save specifically for your wedding.

Cancel Christmas gift s this year, just buy small token presents if need be.

Cancel your annual holidays.

Cancel hobbies/subscriptions for a year

Have a late afternoon ceremony (4/5pm) so you can invite everybody to the wedding ceremony & reception afterwards. That way you have one set of catering costs so you can feed everyone at the same time.
My friend did this & avoided paying an additional 2k for a buffet.

Hire a community hall/ scouts club as they are cheaper. Or approach a hotel/restaurant for a mid week deal as there are some good inclusive deals at the moment.

Mid week weddings are a good way to manage your guest list.

My brother ordered the M&S white chocolate ribbons cake for £249. A similar cake from a specialist wedding cake bakery would have cost about £600.

m.marksandspencer.com/mt/www.marksandspencer.com/White-Chocolate-Ribbons-Wedding-Cake/dp/B004VSVXU8

Ask a friend or relation with a nice car to drive you to the wedding. So you can save £££ on unnecessary car hire fees.

Look for a dress & suits in the sale.
m-uk.monsoon.co.uk/uk/sale/wedding-dresses?redirected;jsessionid=9CD044C9D2D75032DCEA6F3B28EB6E29.app8

Save £2 coins & once a month transfer the money to your savings account.

Only when you have done all you can to generate extra cash, should you approach the bank of mum & dad for a loan or a cash gift! So atleast it looks like you are in control!

m.marksandspencer.com/mt/www.marksandspencer.com/White-Chocolate-Ribbons-Wedding-Cake/dp/B004VSVXU8

m-uk.monsoon.co.uk/uk/sale/wedding-dresses?redirected;jsessionid=9CD044C9D2D75032DCEA6F3B28EB6E29

Thanks everyone youve been great :)

We both moved away from our home cities and so our families will have to travel. We also dont come from the same city so cant even compromise by finding somewhere nice near 'home'. I dont know, i feel cheeky expecting people to pay for the travel and accomodation and then have to do things like pay for their own meal or find themselves with a few hours before a 'night do'. I usually associate the travel and accomm with those fancy castle weddings in scotland ha think people would be immediately disappointed

Also, to do something like that at a registry office we would have to travel 30 miles to a place we dont even like (we live very rural) as it is somewhere we associate with work! So it would be very impersonal. Something i wouldnt mind if it was lowkey for just us and parents but not where i want to start inviting people to iyswim

I would much rather do it in our village. the church is amazing and it would give us an opportunity to show our families where we live (some have never visited). The problem is that there are only 2 pubs and they would cost a fortune to hire out. We live somewhere that people travel to for dream weddings ha! I wouldnt mind just having a working mans club for mine haha

joanofarc im glad you like the camping pods idea - its a bit too reliant on good weather though but im pleased that you think it would be good :) dp's family - think the older ones would rather a four poster bed and the younger ones are a bit soft for any sort camping! Even the sort that involves a wooden roof ha!

Oh well if you wouldnt mind im a size 10 or 12. Cheers!

I like this one ebay 12 sleeveless with lace but maybe because it resembles my own wedding dress

And this one looks quite good for the price, if you can handle strapless ebay ivory embroidered strapless

Join a wholesalers like costco to buy large multipacks of food & drinks which is cheaper than paying rrp on single units.

warehouses.costco.co.uk/membership/